Accreditation Supplemental Questions

1. Date May 12, 2005

2. Program (include a listing of component disciplines if appropriate) (IDS) Interdisciplinary Studies (Global Studies and US Cultures)

3. Faculty contributing to this report Wei Djao, Najima Rizvi, Karen Sthuldreher, Enrique Olguin

Program Goals

4. How are the goals of your program developed and evaluated? There is no coherent process for program development goals. The four of us were hired between 1992-1996 as part of the college’s plan to modernize and diversify its curriculum. Accordingly we were brought in to specifically teach and develop interdisciplinary courses and programs. Faculty who teach in the program work together informally to share pedagogy and to coordinate offerings. Courses taught in Ethnic Studies, Global Studies, Gender Studies emerged as interdisciplinary responses to the shortcomings of disciplinary based research agendas as these intersected with the struggles for equity and self representation by these various subaltern communities.

Several years ago we were asked to create learning outcomes for the college as part of an college wide update of our degree. We were also asked to review courses which wanted certification as fulfilling these outcomes for our degree requirements. All of this was tasked to us ad hoc as the substantive experts in the interdisciplinary fields that gave rise to the specific learning outcomes and degree requirements

Since that time there has been no formalization of the relationship of our program’s faculty and the college curriculum review process. In at least three instances, negative recommendations were over-ridden by the college curriculum committee. None of us were ever asked to come and explain our recommendation. None of us, as a consequence of our work in this ad hoc subcommittee, serve on our Curriculum Committee. No one on the curriculum committee acts as liaisons to our ad hoc working group.

Consequently, all course applications that fill out the form completely are accepted. Degree requirements which are cast as interdisciplinary are now fulfilled by courses that are also introductions to traditional disciplines rather than oriented primarily around global studies or us cultures learning outcomes. In short the design of a course that fulfills an interdisciplinary degree requirement is left completely to the standards of each individual discipline.

There is no coherent assessment of student learning outcomes. Our program faculty do individual assessment of their courses. However not all courses college wide are required to assess their effectiveness at reaching these outcomes (as IDS faculty do); not even those that purport to fulfill GS or US Culture’s requirements. No college wide assessment of our effectiveness at reaching our curriculum goals with students is carried Accreditation Supplemental Questions out by the institution as a whole. As a consequence there is no way to distinguish between non-interdisciplinary courses with USC or GS designation by other faculty who are disciplinary specialists from those courses that include one or more USC or GS learning outcome but have no US or GS designation.

5. How do the goals of your program contribute to the mission of the college? Our goals are reflected in the GS and IDS learning outcomes, as well as in the college mission statement on diversity. All IDS faculty have served on Curriculum, Assessment and professional development committees as well as our College Diversity Action Committee. As those people hired to teach diversity curricula we view ourselves as central to expanding the range of perspectives and identities reflected in the curricular and whole life of the college.

Program Resources

6. On a 1-5 scale (1 is low; 5 is high), how would you rate the adequacy of your program’s human resources? Please explain your response. (You might consider faculty qualifications, faculty collaboration, FT-PT faculty ratio, instructional techs or other support staff, etc.) Our IDS faculty have some of the best qualified faculty in the college Three Ph.D.s and one ABD. We have between us many decades of teaching and research in our fields.

7. On a 1-5 scale (1 is low; 5 is high), how would you rate the adequacy of your program’s physical resources? Please explain your response. (You might consider classroom and office space, furnishings, instructional equipment, instructional supplies, etc.) —No physical resources for our program are specified for IDS. Most classrooms have old, broken, lost and forgotten equipment. My colleague’s overhead projector exploded yesterday. I started using the computer to avoid being electrocuted by the same overhead projector. Some classes are better than others, but few are adequate. A lot of the classrooms are cluttered with the remains of twenty five years of teaching. The remodeled Arts and Sciences building is most enviable.

All classrooms come with video and overhead, but not all have access to a computer that projects. We have a dire shortage of maps to use in classrooms. Classrooms do not have phones for emergency communications.

8. On a 1-5 scale (1 is low; 5 is high), how would you rate the adequacy of your program’s financial resources? Please explain your response. (You might consider resources for instructional materials and supplies, professional development, guest presenters, etc.) No financial resources other than faculty salary are specified for IDS.

Admissions/Progression Accreditation Supplemental Questions

9. If your program has any program-specific admission criteria or processes, please describe them. (Include any forms/materials developed for this purpose.) We strongly recommend that students enrolled in our courses are at English 101 level.

10. If your program has any program-specific orientation process, please describe it. (Include any forms/materials developed for this purpose.) N/A

11. If your program has any program-specific criteria for student progression, please describe those criteria. (“Student progression” is used here to mean (1) moving from one course to the next in a sequence, or (2) continued enrollment in the program.) No, in fact our course are all cast at the level of general education. We are preparing students for college wide success more than we are introducing students to majors and disciplines. Some of out students might become Ethnic Studies or Global Studies or Women’s Studies majors. But our classes are designed to fulfill college wide USC and GS learning outcomes.

This also separates us from many of the disciplinary based courses that purport to fulfill the IDS type degree requirements.

Learning

12. If program faculty participate in determining whether students’ developmental work (pre-college level work) adequately prepared them for college-level work, please describe the nature of that participation.

13. How does your program identify and respond to special learning needs students might have? (Consider needs for educational accommodations, tutoring, etc.) All four of us chose to teach in fields that were designed to increase the representation of disadvantaged communities in the academy. For over four decades our fields of study have been challenging the notion that some learning needs are “special,” while others are normal. The core pedagogies of our fields of study place the empowerment of the least among us as the essence of our vocations. Much of the recent attention to the particular needs of students with learning or other disabilities are outgrowths of this earlier activity.

AME courses, for example, show a higher rate of success for students identified as facing learning challenges that do other social science courses.

14. How do you ensure that the use of library and information resources is integrated into your program? We make them do research using library and other quality information sources.

15. What efforts do program faculty make to connect course-based learning activities with co-curricular activities offered on campus? Cite one or more examples to illustrate. We participate on Diversity Advisory Committee, we all speak at student events, when Accreditation Supplemental Questions relevant we bring students to campus events. We have sponsored speakers and speaker series on topics relevant to our programs. We also make referrals to a variety of campus co-curricular support (e.g. counselors).

16. If your program offers credit for prior experiential learning, please describe any program-specific policies that govern the awarding of such credit. N/A

17. If your program has any special articulation agreements with other educational institutions, please describe the nature of those agreements. Specific courses are articulated with local transfer institutions.

Student Support

18. How is academic advising provided for the students in your program? If program faculty serve as academic advisors, please describe how they are prepared for and supported in that role. They come to our office and talk to us (or they don’t). Our work as academic advisors is continuous and informal. Students select mentors via mutual affinity.

19. If program faculty help students make career choices or choices about baccalaureate programs, please describe how this help occurs, and how extensively. They come to our office and talk to us (or they don’t). Our work as academic advisors is continuous and informal. Students select mentors via mutual affinity.

Summary Reflections

20. Considering only the items in this questionnaire, which stand out as particular strengths for your program? We have a highly trained and dedicated core faculty. IDS faculty show a higher enrollment by students of color than do other faculty. We feel that our programs provide an opportunity for students to experience the transformative effects of higher education while both acknowledging and seeking to minimize the personal costs such change imposes on the non-traditional student. We also feel that our programs provide a comfortable environment for traditional students to have their culture and values made the subject of critical inquiry.

21. Considering only the items in this questionnaire, which stand out as areas of concern and or opportunities for growth for your program? The lack of curriculum management is of particular concern to us. Non-interdisciplinary courses with USC or GS designations grows without rigorous preapproval and continue with no ongoing assessment increase yearly. As this number grows, the demand for our newer curricula suffer. When course can count both as introductions to large, popular disciplines (e.g. History) and as special designations they have a natural marketing advantage. In the current environment where adherence to GS or USC learning outcomes is purely nominal IDS courses, which are designed around these requirements, suffer Accreditation Supplemental Questions enrollment declines.

Despite being here for over ten years, the college awareness of IDS programs and their relationship to college learning outcomes remains limited. Our degree is organized around substantive learning outcomes (e.g. Global Studies), but advisors and administrators continue to think in terms of disciplinary prefixes.

One example of this misunderstanding occurred in 2000-2002. Our college district received a title VI grant to internationalize curriculum. Faculty could and did receive support to internationalize their curriculum but were not required to adhere to the learning outcomes for global studies in our degree. GS faculty cannot ignore the learning outcomes for GS since these outcomes represent the core of the field. Any effort to bring the traditional disciplines” along in the environment of internationalizing the curriculum should have referred to that outcome. But of course the GS outcome is “ancillary” to a course in a traditional discipline

In this vein, both the USC and GS committees have felt pressure from college wide curriculum governance committees to approve courses when we felt they were not adequate, or when we had unanswered questions about faculty credentials. We believe that courses which fulfill USC or GS requirements should have those outcomes as central, and not ancillary, to the subject being taught.

22. What actions might you undertake to enhance program strengths, address program concerns and/or respond to growth opportunities? 1) hold professional development sessions for administrators and our campus curriculum committee about IDS programs and their relationship to traditional disciplines. 2) hold professional development sessions for disciplinary faculty that want to globalize or multiculturalize their curricula so that they do so in ways consistent with our campus learning outcomes.

23. What would support your actions? Teach our new administrators about why IDS faculty were hired to create IDS programs. We were hired to be the motors for academic renewal on our campus. Those administrators remaining and their replacements have not continued their support of our work.

Thank you very much for your thoughtful responses.